The present invention relates to a disc holder provided in a device for reproducing a disc.
There is known a conventional device for reproducing a disc held in a disc holder wherein several tens of discs are stored, and a desired disc is picked by an automatic disc changer so as to be reproduced. The discs are disposed in a compact manner without taking up much space, so that the capacity of each holder can be decreased.
Referring to FIG. 17, a conventional disc reproducing device having an automatic disc changer comprises a casing 101, and a door 110 provided in front of the casing 101. In the casing 101, a disc player 200 having a disc loading arm 220, and a plurality of disc holders 300 are provided. The disc player 200 is movably mounted in the casing along the holders 300 disposed in the horizontal direction, that is, in directions shown by arrows A.
Referring to FIG. 18, in the holders 300 are stored a plurality of vertically disposed discs 310 in a horizontal arrangement, each in a space divided by partitions (not shown). The disc player 200 slides in parallel to the axial direction of the discs 310 as shown by the arrow A, so as to confront the disc selected to be played. The loading arm 220 is downwardly rotated, so as to engage one the selected disc and urges the disc into the disc player 200.
When the door 110 of the casing 100 is opened as shown in FIG. 17, the disc holder 300 can be rotated about connecting pins 302 in directions shown by arrows B to be exposed from the casing. Thus, the disc 310 in any of the holders 300 except the one in which a disc is moved, or reproduced, can be easily taken out from the casing to be changed.
Referring to FIGS. 19a and 19b showing the holder 300 in section, the holder 300 has a plurality of partitions 300a, thereby forming a plurality of parallel grooves 300b extending in the lateral direction of the holder 300. In each groove 300b, there is inserted a twelve-centimeter disc 310a as shown in FIG. 19a, or an eight-centimeter disc 310b as shown in FIG. 19b. The bottom of the groove 300b is so designed as to form an arc, the curvature of which coincides with that of the periphery of the twelve-centimeter disc 310a. If the twelve-centimeter disc 310a is stored in the groove 300b, a relatively large portion of the lower periphery thereof makes a contact with the bottom of the groove 300b so that the disc 310a is stably held therein.
On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 19b, since the eight-centimeter disc 310b has a larger curvature than that of the groove 300b, a smaller peripheral portion of the disc 310b rests on the bottom surface. More particularly, when exchanging the disc, the holder 300 is rotated so as to carry the disc outside the casing 101 as shown in FIG. 20a. After a new disc is put in, the holder 300 is rotated back in the opposite direction to the position of FIG. 20b. During the operation, the new disc 310b rolls back and forth due to the dead weight thereof. Hence it takes a while for the eight-centimeter disc 310b to stop at the predetermined position in the groove 300b. If the disc player 200 is horizontally moved to pick out another disc while the eight-centimeter disc is still rotating, the player 200 and the disc may collide, thereby damaging the disc. Hence the player 200 must wait for the disc to stop moving before starting to move for picking out a disc. As a result, the reproduction of the discs cannot be quickly operated.